Great live music to check out this week

A blast knocks you out cold, and you wake up in a smoke-filled room where The Damned and The Reatards are taking music lessons from Black Sabbath. You can’t escape, and you don’t want to. This is what Charleston’s own Dumb Doctors have created on their latest release, Summer Trash/How Do You Know the Psychic? Dumb Docs frontman Scott Dence prefers music recorded to tape, so it was only fitting they do the same for their latest fuzzy effort. “I recorded the ‘Summer Trash’ single on a Tascam 424 MKII,” Dence says. “I love the way tape sounds and how warm and real it is.” The band has kept busy with three EPs this year alone, and Dence hopes for a full-length album by the end of 2014. “We recorded with Ryan Zimmerman a couple of times, and the raw stuff sounds good, but we’re kind of a different band now than we were two months ago,” Dence says. “So we’re going to keep recording and see if we can piece it together.” Until then, Dumb Doctors fans will have to blast the new “Summer Trash” single on repeat. But what or who exactly is the summer trash? According to Dence, “I am the summer trash! You are the summer trash! We all are the summer trash!” —J. Chapa TUESDAY

FOLK ROCK | Elonzo
w/ Bully Pulpit
Sat. Aug 30
9 p.m.
Tin Roof

Truckers Jeremy Davis and Ben Haney double as alternative folk-rock musicians in Charlotte-based Elonzo. The band is named after Davis’ father, and its music subconsciously channels his influence. “I didn’t think much of it other than we needed a name and that seemed like a great option,” Davis says. “Looking back though, I think it in some ways is a way for us to remember him. I never got to know him as an adult, but whatever he imparted on me as a child, I feel like reflects in the music I write.” His father’s farming background is what inspired Davis to team up with Haney for a grassroots, blue-collar trucking business to sustain them while they play music. Country roots are evident in Elonzo’s rock-meets-backwoods sound, which is especially strong on the 2008 debut disc All My Life. The second and third albums carry a softer tone that’s more alternative folk than country, yet it’s still rooted in rock ‘n’ roll. Elonzo’s latest collection — last year’s Salt in the Wound. Flesh on the Bone. — embodies their current indie-folk-rock sound the most, although the band is already looking ahead to the next record. “The songs I have been writing are much more catchy and stripped down in a way than what I have done before,” says Davis. For now, Elonzo’s on the road again. “When I’m home on a Friday night and all my friends are on their respective social media posting about the shows they are playing, it drives me nuts. I want to be out there and be a part of it,” says Davis. —Kalyn Oyer SATURDAY

Greensboro-based Nightmare Sonata is known for its wild live shows. “Women have literally tried to get their heads underneath my guitar to get to my belt buckle during my sets in the past,” says the Rev. Benjamin Samedi, lead-singer and tyrant of the “world’s only voodoo horror punk band.” Frontman Samedi is backed by drummer Vega, guitarist Pork, and bassist The Lady Von Creepyshit, and are all currently hard at work on the follow-up to their 2011 EP Necrophile. “All the songs are written. I’m hoping to have the new record ready by the end of the year,” says Samedi. Close your eyes, and you could easily mistake the crew for a young Ben Weasel fronting The Misfits. However, Samedi says they draw influences from much more than punk pioneers: “Hellraiser for sure. Hellraiser III was filmed in our hometown.” Nightmare Sonata’s raucous show makes for a damn good time, although it has caused its problems, too. “I’ve been censored in South Carolina twice. Once in Rock Hill and once in Charleston,” says Samedi, who is often dressed as Bokor, a voodoo priest prevalent in Haitian lore. “To me, our live show is like a public service to The Ghede (the forgotten dead). The music itself and the energy from the crowd are the offerings.” —J. Chapa SATURDAY

Renowned DJ J Rocc started spinning records in the mid-’80s, making heads bob worldwide before some of y’all were even born. He co-founded the pioneering turntable crew The Beat Junkies and has shared stages all over the globe with hip-hop legends like Madlib and the late, great J Dilla. In 2011, J Rocc released his all-original production Some Cold Rock Stuff, a record that inspired local funk DJ D!Z, a.k.a. Charles Dean, who organized J Rocc’s appearance at Tin Roof. “J Rocc has been one of my favorite DJs for a long time running,” Dean says. “I’ve always thought of The Beat Junkies crew and all the Stones Throw artists as some of the most hip.” J Rocc is on Stones Throw Records along with some of hip-hop’s most respected and influential acts. They may not get a lot of mainstream radio playtime, but drop one of the label’s artists into a conversation, and you’ll get a respectful nod from anyone in the know. —J. Chapa FRIDAY

Eric Aguiar and Dan Tanner of Atlantic Thrills were heavy into hip-hop sampling before they got hooked on obscure ’60s psychedelic music. “The hip-hop thing ended, so I thought, ‘Let’s play this shit instead of sampling it,’” says Aguiar. The garage-psych band currently comprises Aguiar as frontman, lead guitarist Tanner, drummer Josh Towers, and guitarist Mike Dominguez. The Rhode Island-based band’s music is a gritty, edgy combination of 1950s doo-wop and heavily fuzzed-out punk rock. The guys have been together since 2008 making surf-rock singles like “A Day at the Beach,” but a grungier, dirtier feeling encompasses the band’s self-titled debut album released earlier this year. “Acid Rain” is a killer psych-rock track that sounds a lot like The Cramps with a dash of Bob Dylan and Iggy Pop. “Light Shines” explores a mix of mellow vocals and high-energy guitar, while the noise rock of “Holy Mountain” creates an almost chaotic feel for such an enlightened title. “Our influences are everything from folk and country to our roots of ’90s hip-hop to old-school reggae,” Aguiar says. “We listen to all types of music, but when it comes to our own sound, we bring that garage attitude.” —Kalyn Oyer MONDAY